This invention relates generally to the field of sausage preparation. Specifically, this invention relates to loaders used to hold sausages during smoking or cooking.
Sausages are made by filling a tubular casing, such as one made from a collagen film, with a pasty product. The pasty product is usually a mixture of minced meat and seasonings, but can also include vegetarian products. Often, the tubular casing is itself wrapped in a tubular netting. The sausage is then processed by smoking, cooking, aging, steaming, or other finishing operation. The netting is usually left on the sausage during the finishing operation and may or may not be removed prior to sale to the consumer. An illustrative process of making sausages is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,041 to Urban, Process for Filling Tubular Casings.
As the sausages are produced by, for example, the apparatus described in the '041 patent, they are extruded onto a table. Workers are employed to lift the sausages off the table and place the sausages on a platform of a rack. A rack is a framed device, with numerous platforms attached to the frame. Racks are usually about six feet in height, to be able to fit into a standard smokehouse. Racks are usually on wheels. Once a worker has filled up each tray of a rack with raw sausages, the rack is wheeled into a smokehouse for finishing.
Problems arise in this method of manufacture of sausages. Sausages are raw when initially made and not particularly stiff at that time. Accordingly, it is difficult for a worker to keep a sausage completely straight, as a worker who supports a, for example, three-foot-long sausage with two hands will often find the sausage bending or sagging in the middle. Bending and sagging create unsightly blemishes in the collagen casing, displeasing to consumers. Additionally, the manual nature of the operation means some percentage of sausages will be dropped and therefore ruined.
Accordingly, a need exists for an apparatus and method to load freshly-made sausages directly onto a rack than can be then wheeled into a smokehouse for further processing. The present invention meets this need.